Kiwi-French couple make their own Shikoku pilgrimage to produce guidebooks

From Asahi.com (07.11.2006) :

She is from New Zealand and he is French. They are not the most likely couple to make the 1,500-kilometer pilgrimage around the island of Shikoku, but that is exactly what they are doing--to compile a French and English guidebook to the island and spread the word about the magic of the Shin-Shikoku Mandara hallowed grounds.

Wearing sedge hats and armed with other symbols adopted by traditional Shikoku pilgrims, the couple plan to visit 88 locations over roughly two years.

They may come from further afield, but these days Joanna Hare, a 47-year-old associate professor at Kochi University, and Thomas Arifi, 45, live in Nankoku, Kochi Prefecture. They married in February.